


Orpheus' Song

by LadyLustful



Category: Daredevil (TV), Punisher - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, F/M, Feels, Frank Castle Feels, Gen, Insomnia, Maria and the children come back to life, Nightmares, Non-Graphic Violence, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Psychological Horror, arguably - Freeform, not a happy fic at first
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-04-20
Updated: 2016-05-04
Packaged: 2018-06-03 11:30:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 373
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6609034
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LadyLustful/pseuds/LadyLustful
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Frank Castle's family is brought back to life.<br/>He should be overjoyed, but is too traumatised and  and too scared of losing them again.<br/>(He'll get better. Eventually.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Terrors that Will Lay Ahead

**Author's Note:**

> Title from Iron Maiden "Afraid to Shoot Strangers"  
> (Which Frank is not, and that's ironic. Iron-ic, get it? That was meant to be punny. Punny? Get it? Punny? Never mind, I swear I act like the lovechild of Tony Stark and Deadpool high on acid and coffee sometimes.)  
> The relevant part of the lyrics:  
> "Lying awake at night  
> I wipe the sweat from my brow  
> But it's not the fear, cause I'd rather go now  
> Try to visualise the horrors that will lay ahead  
> A desert sand mound, a burial ground..."
> 
> You know what, just listen to the entire fVKing thing, allright? I swear you'll probably like it even if you're not a metalhead.

Now that his family has been miraculously returned to him, he realises that he's not as happy as he should be. Instead, he's scared shitless.  
Apart from the first night, when he more or less passed out, beated and bloody and fucked-over, with a newly-resurrected Maria in his arms, he thinks he hasn't slept though two consecutive hours. He'll wake, heart pounding and mind reeling with terror, and slip out of bed to creep down the hall, barefoot and in creased, sweaty underwear, needing to hear his children breathing to reassure himself that they are still alive. But the fear never really goes away - they are here now, but they still can be taken from him.  
"Frank? Wha's wrong?" Maria mumbles sleepily, the fifth time in so many nights and he feels a pang of guilt - he's never tried harder to be quiet, not in the Marines and not as the Punisher, but then, he's never been quite so tired either.  
"Nothing, sweetheart", he says. It's technically true.


	2. At What Price a Life is Lost

All Frank wants is coffee.  
It's around 2030 hours and he's walking to the store to get coffee, because they've run out and he'd rather go now than before breakfast. Besides, walking at night clears his head.  
He hears screams from an alley.  
"Let fucking go of me, for fuck's sake!" A woman's voice, shrill and high-pitcher, half-afraid, half-furious. He turns that way, heading down a dark, narrow alley that stinks of garbage. He sees the fucker holding the woman -now sobbing and begging - down, a knife in his hand.  
He grabs the bastard from behind, breaking his wrist with a short, sharp crack, letting him slip to the ground, leaving the knife in Frank's hand.  
The woman stares at Frank with shocked eyes. So does her would-be rapist. Frank looks down at the knife in his hand. It's a small, cheap, flimsy piece of of crap, but it'll do the job.  
Then he catches himself. Stabbing the guy in the neck would be messy, and Maria will be furious if he comes home covered in blood.  
He lets the knife go, hearing it clatter to the ground.  
Then, he snaps the rapist's neck.  
For the first time in long fucking weeks, he feels fine.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Title from "The Thin Line Between Love and Hate". Iron Maiden again. What? I like them.  
> Also, sorry if you find my writing skills lacking.

**Author's Note:**

> The other possible quote was from Vader's "Sword of the Witcher", but I felt it was both too heavy and too cheerful.


End file.
